Art is always artful, a ruse, a trick. It is a court fool, jumping up and down, aping its masters. Art is part of the dream that we inhabit. - Deborah Poynton

About Deborah Poynton

Deborah Poynton (born in 1970) is a South African painter best known for her monumental, hyper-realistic, hyper-detailed, nude portraits, usually of friends and family. She lives and works in Cape Town. Born in Durban, South Africa in 1970, her parents founded and ran an anti-apartheid conference centre and died when she was a child. Poynton grew up in South Africa, England, Swaziland and the United States, often moving to different boarding schools. Poynton knew from the start that she wanted to be an artist. Before returning to South Africa to paint, she attended the Rhode Island School of Design for two years between 1987 and 1989, but did not graduate.